Selections from the Poetry of Lord Byron

uncultivated spectators are profuse of their applause !--But now the dance is over : let us remain here tonight and feast and be cheerful, and tomorrow we will depart for the Mooa. How troublesome are the young men, begging for our wreaths of flowers, while they say in their flattery, 'See how charming these young girls look coming from Licoo !-how beautiful are their skins, diffusing around a fragrance like the flowery precipice of Mataloco' :-Let us also visit Licoo. We will depart to-morrow." (Mariner's Account, etc., 1827 ed., I, 244.)

In the same place is given a poetical version in eight-line stanzas (by "a literary friend”). A more strictly literal prose version also is given in vol. II, at page xl of the Appendix. Byron, however, seems to have used only the version quoted above. The author notes that “it is perhaps a curious circumstance that love and war seldom form the subjects of their poetical compositions, but mostly scenery and moral reflections.”— In what sense are Byron's verses original poetry? What is the most important element in poetic originality ?

301 : 10. tooa. “A superior sort of yam” (Mariner).

302 : 29. Mooa. "Place where the chiefs. etc., dwell” (Mariner).

302 : 30. “ Mats" are a common article of clothing in the Tonga Islands, according to Mariner.

302 : 32. Marly, or Malái, “a piece of ground, generally before a large house, or chief's grave, where public ceremonies are principally held” (Mariner).

302 : 45. Cava, the pepper-plant, from which an intoxicating drink is prepared.

302 : 49. Tappa. "A substance used for clothing, prepared from the bark of the Chinese paper mulberry tree" (Mariner).

302 : 50. Hooni. A kind of flower.

302 : 58. « Licoo is the name given to the back or unfre. quented part of any island” (Mariner).

303. ON THIS DAY I COMPLETE MY THIRTY-SIXTH YEAR. Byron's last poem, written in Greece a few weeks before his death. 303 : 5. Cf. Macbeth,' V, iii, 23 :

"my way of life Is fall’n into the sear, the yellow leaf.” The following passage is from an article on Byron in Blackwood's Magazine, 1825 :

" The last poem he wrote was produced upon his birthday, not many weeks before he died. We consider it as one of the finest and most touching effusions of his noble genius. ... The deep and passionate struggles with the inferior elements of his nature (and ours) which it recordsthe lofty thirsting after purity-the heroic devotion of a soul half weary of life, because unable to believe in its own powers to live up to what it so intensely felt to be, and so reverentially honoured as, the right--the whole picture of this mighty spirit, often darkened, but never sunk, often erring, but never ceasing to see and to worship the beauty of virtue—the repentance of it, the anguish, the aspiration, almost stified in despair--the whole of this is such a whole that we are sure no man can read these solemn verses too often.”

INDEX OF FIRST LINES

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7

296

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PAGE Adieu, adieu ! my native shore... Afric is all the sun's, and as her earth...

273 And thou art dead, as young and fair.. Ave Maria ! blessed be the hour ...... • Bring forth the horse !' The horse was brought. Clime of the unforgotten brave !...... Come, blue-eyed maid of heaven !—but thou, alas........ Eternal Spirit of the chainless Mind !............ Hail to our master !-Prince of Earth and Air... How pleasant were the songs of Toobonai..... If that high world, which lies beyond .......... I had a dream, which was not all a dream....

220 I stood in Venice, on the Bridge of Sighs.. I tread on air, and sink not; yet I fear............ 279 Is thy face like thy mother's, my fair child !..... Know ye the land where the cypress and myrtle..... 292 Maid of Athens, ere we part...................

288 Mont Blanc is the monarch of mountains.....

................ Mortal ! to thy bidding bowed... My hair is gray, but not with years.................. Not in those climes where I have late been straying...,. O'er the glad waters of the dark-blue sea O snatch'd away in beauty's bloom.......... O talk not to me of a name great in story ..... O, thou ! in Hellas deemed of heavenly birth. ......... Our life is twofold : Sleep hath its own world....

213 Roll on, thou deep and dark-blue Ocean-roll. She walks in beauty, like the night.......

.... 296 Slow sinks, more lovely ere his race be run.......

....... 294

170

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170

155

ea................

29

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151

PAGE 300 42

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greece................

So, we'll go no more a roving....... Tambourgi! Tambourgi ! thy larum afar.... The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold. The castled crag of Drachenfels... The isles of Greece ! the isles of Greece The lamp must be replenish'd, but even then The ship, call’d the most holy Trinidada '. There be none of Beauty's daughters..... There is a pleasure in the pathless woods. There was a sound of revelry by night....... Thus usually when he was ask'd to sing. 'Tis time this heart should be unmov'd.. When coldness wraps this suffering clay... When the moon is on the wave...... When we two parted............